Effects of External Louvers on Solar Heat Gain and Energy Consumption of an Office Building in Different Climates of Iran

In recent decades, the louvers have been commonly used as shading devices in office buildings. This study is conducted in order to determine the optimum louver’s external angle of an office building from the aspect of solar heat gain and annual energy consumption. In this respect, a sample building with louvers shading devices in the south, east, and west facades was selected, and simulations were conducted by means of the DesignBuilder software for the three cities of Bushehr, Shiraz, and Tabriz of Iran. The comparison of results with the previous studies confirms that the best louver angle is dependent on climate conditions. For all conditions, using louvers shading device in a building results in a reduction in solar heat gain in comparison with a building without louvers. For Bushehr, the optimum southern and western louver angle was + 60° and the eastern louver angle was − 40°, and with a slight difference in Shiraz, the optimum southern angle was + 70° and the western louver angle was + 50°. For Tabriz, in the eastern and western facades of the building, the louver shading device increases the energy consumption, while the southern louvers with the optimum angle of + 50° reduce energy consumption by 6.3% compared to a building without louver shading devices.